Students & Families Alternative Learning
Community Service-Learning

Promising Practices

As it is helpful to learn from and build upon the efforts of others, the Department is seeking out and sharing promising practices. Community Service-Learning (CSL) Promising practices are activities, projects, strategies, and approaches that have been shown to be effective through experience and have led to positive outcomes for youth. The Department believes Community Service-Learning deserves serious attention as a powerful educational practice that addresses many of the components necessary to build strong learning environments. Of equal importance, CSL offers a unique resource for the revitalization of our communities. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service's Learn and Serve America:

"Service-learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that the activity change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is accomplished by combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task to self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content."

For more information on the elements that make up a quality service-learning project, see About CSL. People relatively new to CSL may also find it helpful to review a brief summary of elmentary, middle, or high school level projects.

The following promising practices have been submitted by CSL grantees. To change how they are sorted, click on the name of any of the columns that are underlined. To see details regarding a specific project, click on the individual project's title. To print or email the chart, go to the lower right hand corner of your screen and select "E-mail this page" or "Print View" and follow the instructions from there.

Visit Massachusetts school districts service-learning websites for additional project ideas as well as ideas for institutionalizing and sustaining service-learning.

If you would like to submit a promising practice, please complete and send this form to Kristen McKinnon.

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